Thirty-nine of Michigan's best high school teams and their
robotic counterparts competed this weekend in hopes of making it to the state
championship in Ypsilanti on April 12 through 14, then the national
championship in St. Louis, Missouri.

Kettering's district is one of 10 competitions in Michigan in March.

This year's game was the Rebound Rumble, four
basketball hoops all positioned at different heights across a court 27
feet wide by 54 feet long made up the arena for the epic robot battles.
The team's robots launched basketballs across the court as one of the
ways teams could achieve points. This was only one of the new game's
challenges.

Samantha Rosemond, 15 of Flint and a member of Flint
Northern high school's robotics team FIRE 322, said the teams name stands for
Flint Inspires Real Engineers, and engineering is a field that interests her.

"It's a good program to be into, like if you want to do
engineering in college, it helps you with the mathematics and other stuff in
school." Rosemond said. "You can also get college scholarships doing this
program."

According to the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) website, Kettering awards up to 20 FIRST
Scholarships each year valued at $22,500.

Ryan Ford, 17 of Flint and also a member of team FIRE 322,
said the competition is made up of three events, but the FIRE team was at a bit
of a disadvantage over the weekend due to technical difficulties.

"In our second competition we had a little bit of technical
difficulty because our battery fell off," Ford said. "So they gave us a rematch
for that match."

The overall sentiment of the FIRE 322 team was that their
main goal was to come out as a team and have a good time.